The true story was revived two hours later, at the same desk, asking for the same Mr. or Mrs. Journalcourier. Not even on a Saturday, when we’re in the security of a work cubicle, are we safe from the barrage of political polling and phone bank surveys seeking the closest available eligible voter.

The message left at the tone: Get used to it for the next four weeks.

Early voting started this week in Indiana. The steady pace at the Tippecanoe County Election Board on Tuesday — the first day of voting here, thanks to the Columbus Day holiday the county took Monday — came on the heels of a number of new polls that had Barack Obama and Mitt Romney elbowing for the lead in the presidential race.

Among the polls out this week, one done by Pew Research Center of likely voters had Romney with a 4 percentage point lead over Obama, thanks in part to his debate performance. Then again, a Gallup poll of registered voters had Obama up by 3 percentage points, but down by 2 percentage points to Romney among likely voters.

Which numbers do you trust? Confirmation bias aside, taken together, they tell a bigger truth about the presidential race: This one’s close.

And when it’s this close, count on more phone calls — not necessarily from official pollsters building the next Pew Research Center poll halfway across the nation, but instead from a phone bank right around the corner.

“We’ve been doing phone banking since July,” said Heather Maddox, chairwoman of the Tippecanoe County Democratic Party. She said the party is generating phone lists of registered voters, targeting what she called “strong Democrats” to make sure they’re voting and independents to help build up name recognition for state and local candidates.

“It’s nothing like it was four years ago, when there was so much excitement around here,” Maddox said, referring to the overwhelming phone calling efforts by local Obama field offices in Indiana in 2008. “That really makes you step up your get-out-the-vote efforts. ... You find people are pretty receptive. But you do get your hang-ups, that’s for sure.”

So who are the phone banks and polling firms really reaching as campaign fatigue sets during a no-call-list era?

In a very unscientific survey this week, 310 members of the J&C’s Rapid Response reader panel were asked how they were dealing with political calls this year. Of 54 who responded:

• 9 percent said they have been willing to answer questions to some extent.

• 63 percent said they either screened calls, told callers they weren’t interested or simply hung up on unsolicited pollsters.

• 28 percent said they hadn’t received calls so far.

For the second, and largest, group, the tactics were a telemarketer’s nightmare — or maybe just an everyday experience:

• “I just lay the phone down and let them keep talking to themselves,” said Thomas W. Anderson of Lafayette. “When they figure out that there is no one there, they hang up, and so do I.”

• “I ask for their name and ‘real’ phone number, and I will call them back,” said Alan Beck of West Lafayette. “That discourages 100 percent of callers.”

• “I’ve gotten to the point that we tell the pollsters that we are merely house-sitting, as the owners are on vacation,” said Jim Yeoman of Lafayette.

“Yeah, it can be kind of tough sometimes,” said Jennifer Wagner, communications director for the Indiana Democratic Party, which operates about two dozen volunteer phone banks statewide. “They’re meant to be like political dipstick calls. ‘How are you feeling?’ ‘Who do you like?’ “How likely are you to vote?’ And they still don’t like to stick around much. ... As for bigger, more scientific things, it’s getting harder to keep them on the phone for 12 minutes.”

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Jon Sexson, a Republican from Lafayette, has volunteered to work phone banks three times — Dave Heath’s first mayoral campaign in 1995; the campaign of Donn Brown, a Lafayette Republican who ran against state Rep. Sheila Klinker in 2010, and the primary campaign of Republican U.S. Senate candidate Richard Mourdock.

“I really didn’t get many hang-ups. However, I did have approximately 40 percent that would not answer the set of questions I was to ask,” Sexson said. “I vowed, never again, because people got upset, and I hated to have people say to me, ‘I’m having dinner with my family.’ They were annoyed, and I understood why. ... Besides, I’m not sure how much good they were, anyway.”

Wagner said there is value in phone bank calls to help track likely voters and make sure they’re getting to the voting booth. And there’s value in the polls to do more of the strategic work with campaign messages.

So can we expect more polling work in Indiana into early November?

“Now you’re getting into an area we aren’t in a position to discuss,” Wagner said. “From both sides of the aisle, though, I’m sure there will be some work. It’s a good time to be a polling company, let’s put it that way.”

As early voting rolls on — 184 people turned out at the County Office Building in downtown Lafayette on Tuesday, a first-day record that topped the 140 in 2008 — somebody needs to come up with an app that automatically filters robocalls and TV ads once you voted early. There has to be a way.

Until then, here’s another true story: There’s only one poll that really matters. See you the night of Tuesday, Nov. 6.